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St. Louis CITY SC eMLS Player Wins Virtual Soccer Championship | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

March 14, 2023

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click to enlarge Courtesy photo St. Louis CITY SC eMLS player Niklas Raseck captured the 2023 championship in Austin this past weekend.

Sixty-eight minutes into the eMLS Cup semifinals, Niklas “NR7” Raseck seemed in control. He held a comfortable 2-0 lead in the game, and seemed a shoo-in to continue to the championship. This was nothing new. At 24, Raseck, St. Louis CITY SC’s virtual FIFA player, has won a German championship, qualified for the world cup and competed competitively for 10 years.

Then the momentum shifted.

In a matter of seven minutes, his opponent, the first-seeded Ehsan “Lamps” Zakeri of Minnesota United, scored two goals. The crowd of 1,500 at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater roared — and Lamps motioned for them to grow even louder.

Raseck stared at the computer screen with his head tilted.

Tied game.

But there were still 15 minutes left. Lamps and NR7 traded possessions back and forth. No one got a shot off. Until 90 minutes, just seconds away from the finish — when Raseck corralled the ball in the box and took a shot. Blocked. But it trickled out to Raseck who fired a ball screaming past the goalie into the top right corner of the net.

Raseck ripped off his headset, shot up from his seat, hugged his coach and screamed so loud that the microphones picked up every word. “LET’S GO! LET’S GO! LET’S GO!” he yelled, pumping his fists while the crowd roared. He sat down, pointed to his veins, hugged his coach again, stood up, looked up at the sky and let out a huge sigh.

CITY pic.twitter.com/JsYw7vzTWD— Peter Wood (@PeterWood33) March 13, 2023

An hour later, Raseck defeated reigning champion and Atlanta United player Paulo “Paulo Neto” Roberto Xavier de Brito Neto, to capture the 2023 eMLS championship and $20,000 in prize winnings.

By the time Raseck secured the eMLS Cup championship, he had no energy left to react. He gave a little fist pump and shook Neto’s hand. In his first season representing CITY SC, Raseck held up the trophy and kissed it as smoke rose around him.

The victory capped off a windy road for CITY SC and Raseck. CITY SC joined eMLS in 2020, but the program struggled to perform. The team conducted a worldwide search and signed Raseck, a German native, in November 2022.

Widely considered one of the best FIFA players in the world, Raseck has been a star in virtual FIFA since his first year playing competitively at 14. Since then, Raseck has won multiple international tournaments and earned over $235,000 in prize winnings.

Nearly every team in the MLS has a virtual soccer player — some even have multiple. The players participate in one tournament in January and another in February. The final championship, the eMLS Cup, took place over the weekend to cap off the season.

It has been an up-and-down season for Raseck, who still lives in Germany with his family. He lost in the first round of the first tournament. One month later, he fell in the second round.

“I felt like in the first two seasons, I was a bit unlucky,” he said after the championship win. “[I lost] games really close. I felt like I could do better.”

In this series, he did better. Slated as the four seed out of 26 players, Raseck toughed his way through three formidable opponents before earning the crown of eMLS champion.

Now, Raseck will headed to the next stop: The FIFAe World Cup.

But not so fast. First, he had to celebrate his win.

“We’re gonna party,” he said. “I won the trophy. It’s the last day for me in the U.S. Then I’m going back to Germany. So we’re gonna celebrate in style.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

8 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

8 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

8 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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